Description
This course provides an overview of the questions political scientists ask, what political scientists study, the various means by which they develop answers to the questions, the various approaches to inquiry that they employ, and the types of answers that have emerged. In surveying the scope of political science, we will address its most important areas of specializations, concepts, and controversies. You will acquire knowledge and insights into important research questions, theories, methods, and findings from political science research. You will be equiped with the vocabulary and the concepts of political science and with an understanding of diverse approaches applied by political scientists. You are also motivated to reflect about the scope, content, and methods of the discipline and to critically evaluate contributions to the political science literature. Important secondary goals are to strengthen your library and internet research skills on political science, your ability to accurately engage in a close and critically reading of political science texts, to improve your critical thinking skills, including the ability to determine the accuracy and completeness of the information provided, question cause and effect assertions, recognize poor logic and faulty reasoning, question inferences and ‘logical’ conclusions, and the ability to compare and contrast different points of view, and your ability to cogent, analytic writing. The ultimate aim is that you will become familiar and comfortable with political science, that you will better understand the complexity of it, and that you are equipped with the theoretical and methodological tools to proceed to examine politics in greater depth, to formulate key questions in political science, to proceed to other advanced political science courses, and ultimately that you will become a good political scientist.
Methods of Instruction
The course depends upon active participation and input by all students and includes various methods of teaching and learning: participating in lectures, studying the assigned readings, writing a literature review, writing a comment to another student’s draft literature review, participating in literature workshops, content analyzing political science journals, writing a political science journals content analysis report, writing a comment to another student’s draft ‘state of the art’ paper, writing your own ‘state of the art’ paper, and designing and presenting a poster or video of your ‘state of the art’ paper.
Lectures
Students and teacher meet once a week for two-hour periods throughout the first block. Following the introductory lecture there will be literature workshops and ‘state of the art’ panels. You are expected to participate in all lectures, workshops and panels. Literature study
You are expected to study all assigned chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Political Science, edited by Robert E. Goodin and published by the Oxford University Press in 2009.
Literature review
You are expected to write a review of at least one of the book chapters (guideline: 2 pages, single-spaced) and to present this review at one of the literature workshops. In the first part, you summarize what the author has written. The comment or evaluation part should include your evaluation of the chapter’s scientific quality and relevance. You are expected to send the draft of your written review to another student who will provide written comments to it. Being able to summarize and evaluate a publication effectively is a vital skill in the world of political science. This activity also offers you the opportunity to improve your skills in writing a review for a scientific journal. Literature review comment
One of your fellow-students will send you the draft of his/her literature review. You are expected to provide this fellow-student a written comment regarding his/her review within three days (guideline: 1 page, single-spaced). This comment should provide reasonable, useful, and constructive critiques of the draft review. A copy of your written comment should also be sent to the teacher. The goal of this peer consultation is to strengthen the literature review of your fellow-student and to strengthen your own critical review and comment skills.
Literature workshop
You are asked to present a summary of your written literature review to the whole group of students at one of the literature workshops. All assigned book chapters will be discussed in the literature workshops. Each chapter will be reviewed by one or more students, using their written reviews of that chapter. Next the group comments to the chapter and the reviews. Students who have not written a review are also invited to comment. You are expected to participate in all literature workshops.
Content analysis of political science journals
You are asked to individually analyze the contents in the last three years of two political science journals. One journal should be a general political science journal and the second should be a specialized political science journal. Thanks to this analysis you learn what the demands are that scientific journal editors make on their authors and you become more acquainted with current political science research themes, questions, and methodologies.
Journal reports
You are asked to write two journal content analysis reports (one report per journal). Each journal report (guideline: 1 page, single-spaced) consists of three parts. The first part includes a short description of the journal itself, including the editorial policy and instructions to authors. The second part includes an overview of the themes, research questions, and methodologies presented in the abstracts which were published in the journal in the last three years. The third part includes your evaluation of the journal. The reports should be clear and interesting also for those readers who have not read the journals. All journal reports will be published on the Blackboard site for this course. Together they will give a nice overview of existing political science journals. ‘State of the art’ paper
You are also expected to write a ‘state of the art’ paper. The minimum number of pages is 4 and the maximum number is 6 (single-spaced). Your ‘state of the art’ paper should offer an overview of the literature regarding one political science topic or theme and should result in one or more questions for future research. You are free to choose which topic you want to explore. You are requested to make your choice in the second course week. Examples of topics are: Power, Autocracy, Democracy, War, International Security, Federation, Public Diplomacy, Globalization, Development, Human Rights, Terrorism, Environment and Politics, Religion and Politics, Public Policy, Policy Fiasco or Success, Voting, Extremism, Political ‘cleavage’ in Dutch Politics, Citizenship, Justice, Islamism, Political Marketing, EU Decision Making, Women and Politics, Sexuality and Politics, Civic Culture, Political Ontology, Qualitative Political Science Research, and Experiments in Political Science Research. The title of your paper should be ‘What do we know about [topic]?. A State of the Art’. For theme or topic related literature, see the other than assigned chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Political Science. For recently published specialized articles you may scan the tables of contents of journals which are available in the library (e.g., the Annual Review of Political Science) and search scientific web sites on the Internet. Key questions are: what has been researched with respect to the topic that you have chosen, which theories have been tested, which methods of inquiry have been applied, and what were the main findings? You are expected to send the draft of your ‘state of the art’ paper to another student who will provide written comments to it. This activity offers you the opportunity to improve your skills in writing a political science paper. ‘State of the art’ paper comment
One of your fellow-students will send you the draft of his/her ‘state of the art’ paper. You are expected to provide this fellow-student a written comment regarding his/her paper within three days (guideline: 1 page, single-spaced). This comment should provide reasonable, useful, and constructive critiques of the draft paper. A copy of your written comment should also be sent to the teacher. The goal of this peer consultation is to strengthen the paper of your fellow-student and to strengthen your own critical review and comment skills.
‘State of the art’ poster or video
You are also asked to summarize your ‘state of the art’ paper in the form of a ‘poster’. A poster is a large piece of paper with a well structured set of a small number of words (and illustrations). For examples of scientific conference posters, see the website of the American Political Science Association. In stead of a poster, you may make and upload a Scivee (http://www.scivee.tv/) or YouTube video abstract. Your poster or vieo should be clearly understandable, well structured, motivating, and convincing.
‘State of the art’ panels
You are asked to present your ‘state of the art’ poster or video at one of the ‘state of the art’ panels. The other students are invited to ask questions about, and to comment to your poster or video. This activity offers you the opportunity to improve your skills in convincingly presenting your scientific work to a group. You are expected to participate in all panels. The course requires an investment of 140 study hours (= 5 EC). The numbers of hours per activity are: lectures, workshops and panels: 8 × 2 hours = 16 hours; studying the assigned readings: 540 pages: 68 hours; writing a literature review: 4 hours; writing a comment to another student’s draft literature review: 2 hours; content analyzing political science journals: 8 hours; writing a political science journals content analysis report: 4 hours; writing a comment to another student’s draft ‘state of the art’ paper: 4 hours; writing your own ‘state of the art’ paper: 32 hours; and designing a poster or video of your ‘state of the art’ paper: 2 hours.
Literature
Goodin, R. E. (ed.) (2009). The Oxford Handbook of Political Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Various chapters.
About 700 pages (out of the 1312 pages). This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the following branches of contemporary political science: political theory; political institutions; political behavior; comparative politics; international relations; political economy; law and politics; public policy; contextual political analysis; and political methodology.
The library of the Faculty has three copies of the book.
Book Link http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/?view=usa&ci=9780199562954#Description
Examination
The grade for your course work is the weighted total of the grades for your written literature review (2/10), comment to a fellow-student’s draft literature review (0.5/10), two political science journal reports (2 times 0.5/10), comment to a fellow-student’s draft ‘state of the art’ paper (1/10), and your own ‘state of the art’ paper (5/10) and poster or video (0.5/10). To pass the course you must meet all six requirements. A passing grade for all activities is desirable but not required to pass the course. The average grade for all papers taken together needs to be a passing grade (5.5 or higher). Only the ‘state of the art’ paper can be retaken.
Schedule
Tuesday 7 September till October 26, 11.00 – 13.00 hrs. in SB11.